MADRID — This weekend, icons of faith and pop culture have circled each other in the Spanish capital like celestial bodies drawn close by gravity. One, the first U.S.-born pope, leader of 1.4 billion Catholics. The other, Bad Bunny — the Puerto Rican singer whose gospel of reggaeton has racked up more than 123 billion streams on Spotify. Source link
Catalina Cove The Rivian R2 Performance’s final EPA ratings are now published, and the numbers confirm something impressive: the R2 Performance matches the Tesla Model Y Performance on efficiency at 105 MPGe combined and 32 kWh per 100 miles — while actually beating it on range with 330 miles versus 306. What makes this particularly noteworthy is the R2’s form factor. The Rivian is a boxier, taller, more utilitarian SUV that weighs nearly 800 lbs more than the Model Y, yet it achieves identical efficiency. The numbers The fueleconomy.gov data breaks down as follows for the R2 Performance with 21-inch wheels and all-season tires: 105 MPGe combined (114 city, 96 highway) with an energy consumption rate of 32 kWh per 100 miles and 330 miles of total range. With the optional 20-inch all-terrain tires, efficiency drops to 99 MPGe combined (109 city, 89 highway) and 34 kWh per 100 miles, with range falling to 307 miles. That’s a meaningful penalty for the knobby tires, but still competitive. Advertisement – scroll for more content It goes …
An American flag flies above a sign displaying gas prices at a gas station in Arcadia, Calif., on May 11. Mario Tama/Getty Images hide caption toggle caption Mario Tama/Getty Images Stay up to date with our Up First newsletter, sent every weekday morning. President Trump has called for a temporary waiver of the federal gas tax, which costs drivers 18.4 cents per gallon. It’s one of several attempts to relieve pain at the pump as voters grow increasingly frustrated with gasoline prices, which have hit four-year highs thanks to the oil trade disruption triggered by the war with Iran. A national gas tax holiday would require an act of Congress. Lawmakers have floated the idea, with several bills introduced before Trump called for a temporary pause on the tax. But even with the president’s backing, it’s not clear whether his proposal will make it to the floor for a vote. Gas tax holidays are controversial, with advocates arguing they provide quick relief and with critics denouncing them as costly and even counterproductive. Here’s what you …
INTCEN has no operational espionage capabilities of its own; instead, it analyzes intelligence shared voluntarily by EU countries and passes its assessments to senior officials in the EEAS, the Commission and the European Council. The renewed attention lends fresh weight to a unit often dismissed as toothless — and comes as officials in Brussels and national capitals have floated the question of whether the EU needs its own spy agency. The EU’s new European Security Strategy, which is being drafted by the Commission and the EEAS, should be published this summer. It is expected to use an expansive definition of security that goes beyond defense to include economic security, supply chains, preparedness and partnerships with countries outside the EU, a fourth person briefed on the strategy told POLITICO. The document, which has been advertised as a “grand strategy,” is expected to be short and to include a geopolitical threat assessment, a status report on European security, and a roadmap for future action, the person said. The roadmap will propose up to 10 major ideas for …
Get the inside track from Roisin O’Connor with our free weekly music newsletter Now Hear This Get our free music newsletter Now Hear This Get our free music newsletter Now Hear This Metal legends Metallica are calling on their British fanbase to donate blood and plasma as they prepare to kick off the UK leg of their highly anticipated world tour. In an unprecedented collaboration between UK blood services and a global music act, the iconic band is urging followers to contribute around their upcoming concert dates. The initiative sees England’s NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT), the Welsh Blood Service, and the Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service working together with the American group. Their aim is to encourage both existing donors to return and new volunteers to come forward. UK blood services have highlighted the constant demand for donations, noting that blood has a limited shelf life of just 35 days. Donors play a crucial role in supporting the treatment of trauma victims, cancer patients, new mothers, and individuals managing long-term conditions such as sickle …
Pessimism is probably “a bigger problem than climate change”, said the novelist Ian McEwan on Monday afternoon, as temperatures broke May records in the UK. McEwan “constantly” hears people say that they don’t “expect their children to have as good a life as they did”, but suggested that optimism is a “moral duty”. McEwan’s latest book, What We Can Know, is partly set in 2119, in a Britain submerged by seas. He spoke at the Hay festival on a panel alongside the former NFU president Minette Batters and Sandi Toksvig, on a day that saw temperatures in London reach 34.8C, beating a May record set in 1922. McEwan went on to say that optimism is an “exercise in rationality”, because it’s “quite possible” – given that “the world is big, cultures are diverse” – that “there could be a revolution happening and we don’t even know about it”. He referred to the “historical moment” in 2020 when electricity generated from renewable sources outpaced that generated from gas and coal plants in the UK. “We were …
Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin on Thursday released the party’s autopsy report on the 2024 election after facing intense pressure to do so. Subscribe to read this story ad-free Get unlimited access to ad-free articles and exclusive content. The report details problems that plagued the Democratic Party in the last presidential election, including messaging that “created tensions with key constituencies” on the economy, late-arriving efforts to organize voters on the ground, a lack of alignment between the party’s main super PAC and then-Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign, and more. Meanwhile, the autopsy itself has already caused strains within the party. Martin had been pummeled in public for months after he promised to release the report and then reversed course in December, saying he would not do so. Ken Martin, chair of the Democratic National Committee, speaks during an interview at DNC headquarters in Washington on Sunday, November 2, 2025.Bill Clark / Getty Images Those concerns stretched to the top levels of the Democratic Party. Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and Martin spoke about a week …
A star rating of 2 out of 5. So public was the police condemnation of Kate and Gerry McCann in the wake of their daughter Madeleine’s disappearance in 2007 from a holiday apartment in Praia de Luz, that suspicion has seemed to cling to them ever since, fuelling years of conjecture. Media reporting, too, has at times slid into sensationalism. This latest true-crime drama from 5 – whose previous reconstructions have included the Soham murders and the scandal surrounding Huw Edwards – returns to the moment that narrative first took hold: when Kate (played by Laura Bayston) was formally declared an “arguida”, or suspect. Rather than rewinding to the events leading up to the discovery of Madeleine’s empty bed on 3 May, we first encounter Kate four months into the investigation, hollowed out by grief and relentless scrutiny, as she’s summoned for another meeting with Portuguese detectives. Progress has stalled, leads are sketchy and no arrests have been made. Yet it quickly becomes clear that Inspectors Joao Carlos (Hugo Nicolau) and Ricardo Paiva (Miguel Freire) …
(Collectiva/Alamy) 10 min read1 hr Britain has now made clear that it wants AI sovereignty, of a kind. But there are numerous hurdles in the way, reports Matilda Martin. For a seat at the table with the US and China, say experts, we’re going to need a bigger stick The battle for tech supremacy has taken many forms: nuclear weapons in the 1940s; the space race in the Cold War. Today, it is artificial intelligence – and the stakes are high. As Keir Starmer limits British involvement in the Iran war, President Donald Trump’s frustration grows – and the UK’s so-called “special relationship” with the US looks increasingly fractured. What would it mean, many wonder, if an irritable US President decided to ‘pull the plug’ on our access to American tech infrastructure? When Trump placed sanctions on the International Criminal Court last year, officials lost access to email accounts and found their bank accounts frozen, bringing the tribunal’s work to a halt. The event was a small glimpse of how quickly a tech …
HBO has given us many iconic series over the years, from The Sopranos to The Wire to Sex and the City and beyond. An embarrassing number of HBO shows have become modern classics, but some have largely been forgotten despite being just as good, and maybe even more influential. Case in point: Rome, a two-season historical epic that aired between 2005 and 2007. This show has sky-high ratings on Rotten Tomatoes, where audiences come close to giving it a near 100% fresh rating with critics not far behind. And yet, it’s been criminally forgotten when people discuss the HBO canon. Rome makes history come alive With some caveats Rome is what it sounds like: a historical drama focusing on ancient Rome. Specifically, the show zeroes in on one of the most famous, tumultuous points in the history of the civilization: the decades leading up to the year 0, when the Roman Republic was supplanted and the Roman Empire began. In brief, Rome covers the rise of Julius Caesar (Ciarán Hinds) as he takes over Rome …
